OnLive, which owed $30-40m to creditors, took a complex financial restructuring as an alternative to bankruptcy, with investors like HTC and British Telecom losing out big time in the process.

Perlman had been expected to stay on despite huge criticism from employees and the tech press.

Still poised for greatness?

The technician who helped to develop the QuickTime video platform and WebTV said he was leaving to work on other projects.

"OnLive is by far the longest project I've ever worked on," Perlman wrote. "For me, it's hard to leave my creation behind, but there is also a huge sense of relief that I can finally step off the treadmill and know that OnLive is in good hands," he wrote in a statement on OnLiveFans.com.

The cloud-based platform, which was under serious threat of shutdown before the restructuring, will now be led by lead investor Gary Lauder, who takes over as chairman and former head of online operations Charlie Jablonski, who's now COO and acting CEO.

In a statement, Lauder wrote: "I spent my first week with OnLive listening, to gather people's thoughts and suggestions. It's an impressive group, and I am even more convinced that this company is poised for greatness."